OTW Fannews: Doing more with fanworks

• Blogger Priya Sridhar suggested that fanfiction can be used to analyze canon. "'Hitchups' first addresses one of the pressing issues in [How To Train Your Dragon]: female character development. The movie has two notable females: Astrid Hofferson, Hiccup's rival and love interest in Dragon Training, and the Village Elder Gothi...The movie limits Astrid's character by delegating her as the love interest who keeps Hiccup on Berk...Before, she was more concerned about competition and coming out on top in Dragon Training, and she loses that aggression after seeing Hiccup as a romantic partner...In 'Hitchups,' both Gothi and Astrid receive more notable screen time."
• The Star News Online reported on a comic book collage artist. "Fluty's artwork has...become popular at comic conventions and with comic book fans in the area." Her work began as "a gift for her boyfriend, for whom she made a desk covered in Superman images. Once the desk was complete, there were leftover pieces and images. This led to canvas-based collage images of superheroes."
• Geekosystem was one of several outlets blogging about a Wholock video. "We would’ve been way less impressed (and not a bit surprised) if the video hadn’t been much more than scenes from the two shows cut together, but Wholock‘s creator, YouTuber John Smith, really surprised us with the visual effects he pulled off. If you want to take a look at how it was made, he put together another video showing how he accomplished the effects for the mashup."
• Librarian Colleen Theisen who works with Open Doors'Fan Culture Preservation Project discussed the variety of work surrounding the materials. "I love that we're called upon to wear every hat, and to invent some as well. In Special Collections we are librarian and archivist, but that also includes curator, teacher, scholar, conservator, writer, graphic designer, data entry specialist, genealogist, PR manager, social media content creator, web designer, historian, mentor, and even grief counselor. Recently I have added .gif animator, and video director."

What have you seen done with fanworks? Write about it on Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.